White Shines at Sesquicentennial Celebrations with Dunaskin Doon Band

A fantastic, sell-out concert was held in the Howard Centre, Kilmarnock on Saturday 11th May by Dunaskin Doon Band. It was a very special event celebrating the band reaching a milestone of 150 years of continuous music-making in Ayrshire, as well as welcoming home renowned tenor horn star, Sheona White to her childhood band.

Sheona is very proud of her Scottish roots and hails from Ayrshire, where her Mum still lives. She began to play the tenor horn at the age of ten displaying a prodigious talent by becoming Junior Solo Champion of Scotland and Principal Horn of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland. A substantial period of her early brass career was spent “honing her skills” at Dunaskin Doon Band. Several current band members have fond memories of Sheona as a youngster and have followed her career since with interest and pride. While at Salford University, Sheona became the first tenor horn player, first Scot and first female to be named ‘British Open Solo Champion’. Sheona has performed with many of the world’s premiere brass bands including the Yorkshire Building Society with whom she was principal horn for 12 years, winning the European Championships an unprecedented eight times in ten appearances.

Youngest Band  member, Percussionist 13 year old Fraser Waddington presents flowers to Sheona

Sheona delighted the audience on a number of impressive solos, accompanied by the band, covering a wide range of musical genres. Her virtuosity and musicality was simply outstanding, with exquisite playing which perfectly demonstrated why she is in such high demand as a performer and soloist around the world.

The band also took the chance to publicly recognise and thank bass trombonist and band stalwart, Blane McKnight, for 50 years’ service to brass banding, all of them spent at Dunaskin Doon. Sheona remembers Blane fondly from her younger years at the band and was delighted to be asked to present him with his SBBA Life Membership Award.

Blane McKnight receives his SBBA 50 year Life Membership Medal from Sheona

Honorary President Angus Cochrane took the opportunity to publicly thank Chris Bradley for his time, patience and efforts over the past three years – due to ongoing personal and professional commitments, Chris has made the difficult decision to resign his tenure as Musical Director with the band. While we are devastated to be losing such a talented and personable MD, we understand and appreciate the reasons behind Chris’ move. He is leaving the band in a fantastic position, having returned us to the top tier of Scottish banding.

The evening was a resounding success – the band played well and Sheona was amazingly good. The audience was so receptive and warm – there was even a standing ovation!

All our concerts are very special to us, and this one felt like a fitting end to Chris’ tenure. Sheona’s presence was hugely appreciated by the whole Dunaskin family, and the queue of past players and old friends waiting to say hello to her, was testament to the genuine warmth of feeling for her.

There was a very special feeling in the air – the band are in a good place just now, and we feel lucky to have such lovely support from our friends, families and followers